Spreading Christmas cheer before Buddy the Elf made it cool.

I don't even remember how we came up with the idea. Somehow my best friends and I just all decided that it would be fun to make elf costumes and wear them to the last day of school before Christmas break. Just a bunch of junior high kids looking to bring some Christmas cheer to our classmates.

(Please ignore the creepy pointing finger... I don't actually remember who it belongs to.)

It was actually kind of fun. I remember feeling really cool when we all walked into the middle school together. Everyone commented on our outfits. It was almost like I was popular. 

It was awesome, as long as we were together...

But when I had a class without a single fellow elf... it was not so great. 

I suddenly went from being this cool, fun, notable girl to being the class weirdo. In those classes I got strange looks and people were like, "Why are you dressed like that? Are you trying to be funny or something?"

"uh...I'm just trying to spread some Christmas cheer..."

But thankfully the day ended on a high note with a Christmas assembly allowing us all to sit together and be the talk of the school. Life was good again and I was kind of popular, for about half a day.

Definitely worth the costume.

My fake, strong husband

So I live with my big brother and for some reason it used to be weird for me to admit that. I don’t know why. But, that all changed the day the locksmith came to our house.

Now, I’m a stranger danger kind of person. I will do whatever it takes to make sure I’m safe, even lie.

So this huge guy comes to my house to change all my locks and I’m the only one home, but I know Austin will be home soon. The locksmith was nice enough, but he totally looked like the guy from that Food Network show, Restaurant Impossible.

So he was still pretty intimidating.

I’m acting confident and trying not to show that I’m a little nervous having this huge stranger in my house.

We reach a door that is kind of jammed and is difficult to open. The locksmith is talking to me about possible ways to fix it and then he asks this question.

“Do you have a strong husband?”

Hmmm…

I don’t know why I answered the way I did. It was a combination of self-preservation and just straight up amusement. I was really flattered that this guy thought I was married. So I thought carefully and said,

"yes…

my husband is very strong...”

A harmless lie. I don’t know this guy and will probably never see him again.

But then the small fib grew to a tangled web of lies. I’m pretty sure I volunteered information like where we got married, who attended the ceremony, and what my wedding colors were.

Then the locksmith asked me who helps us fix things around the house. I guess I must have been feeling guilty about my first lie, but wasn’t completely ready to give up my nonexistent husband, because I told a half-truth that threw a wrench in the whole operation.

“Well actually… uh…my big brother comes over sometimes and helps us with stuff like that.”

So apparently in this fake world I was creating, I live with my husband and my brother comes over to fix things.

“It’s ok,” I thought. “He will be gone before Austin gets home, no big deal.”

But then time went on and on and I started to realize, Austin would be home and we would have to start living the lies I’d been telling.

As locksmith guy was fixing a door, I ran to the other side of the house and called Austin. Frantically, I started shouting nonsense at him when he answered.

“Austin! When you get home we are married ok?! We’re married ok?!”

Austin was like, “No, Sarah. No.”

Then I explained my web of lies and he kind of got it. So Austin gets home and we looked like a couple I guess. We were just doing the dishes together and asking about each other’s days.

“Yes, everything’s ok,” I thought.

Then Austin’s girlfriend came over…

So they’re cuddling together on one side of the couch and I’m on the other side trying not to show how much I'm freaking out inside.

Locksmith guy probably didn’t care about the whole thing, but I was really worried about what he was thinking.

Finally, he left and I could relax. That was definitely one of the most stressful and uncomfortable situations of my life.

Now I no longer have a problem saying I live with my big brother.

I live with my big brother, 

not my fake, strong husband.

Friendsgiving

Last night we hosted "Friendsgiving"

Friendsgiving is essentially Thanksgiving with friends :)

Now Austin is the king of Friendsgiving. He's been doing this for years. He was even mentioned in a Deseret News article last week about Friendsgiving.

http://national.deseretnews.com/article/2833/on-thanksgiving-are-friends-the-new-family.html

Even though Austin is a pro, it was my first Friendsgiving and I was really excited about it. Summer and Holly helped me set the table. Looks good girls. 

Austin made our beautiful turkey along with a chocolate toffee pie. Summer made the gravy and helped with the potatoes. Katie and Emma made stuffing, rolls, and apple crisp. Holly made both the chocolate creme and banana creme pies. And I made (and ate) my first sweet potato casserole.

These poor people.

I'm sure they just wanted to dig in and I was like, "Guys let's take a picture before we eat!"

Then I let them eat.

We were all pretty stuffed. Luckily the couch was inches away from the table. Austin was the first one to throw in the towel and fall into a turkey-coma.

Overall it was really fun and super delicious. Thanks you guys for coming, bringing food, and making Friendsgiving awesome!

My favorite comment of the night was by Austin as I was tying bows around the candy corn favors. He said our ideas of Friendsgiving were pretty different. 

"I usually just make a big turkey and everyone comes over and eats a lot while sitting on the couch... and you're wrapping up candy corn to place at everyone's seat..."

Oops! Sorry, wrong princess.

Whenever someone asks me "what's your most embarrassing moment?" I can never think of anything good.

But I have one that is kind of my go-to story in that situation. So here it goes. This is not my MOST embarrassing moment, but this one was still pretty uncomfortable.

So way back in the day, my family and I went to Disney World. We were at a buffet-style restaurant in our hotel and my mom told me to keep an eye on my little sister. She's kind of hard to miss with her red, gorgeous, Little Mermaid hair.

But somehow I lost her.

I was running through the crowd of people trying to find her, and then I saw her getting a fountain drink. This didn't really make sense to me because we had already paid for our food and found a table. So like any responsible big sister I went up to her and started yelling at her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
  WHY ARE YOU GETTING A DRINK?
  DO MOM AND DAD KNOW YOU'RE OVER HERE!?"

She turned around and there stood a pretty little girl with olive skin, dark hair, and big brown eyes. My little sister couldn't have looked more different with her fair skin, red hair, freckles, and blue eyes.

I was so incredibly confused.

The poor girl looked like she was going to cry and I suddenly felt like crying too. The worst part was when I looked up and saw a whole family of tall, dark, and handsome people staring at me like I was the devil.

"Uh… sorry. I thought she was my little sister." And then I ran away.

When I reached my family's table, I saw the whole fair and freckled crew and just couldn't figure out why I had thought that little girl was my sister.

It's been years since this happened and I still can't come up with any reason for my bizarre behavior. I must have just been looking for the wrong Disney princess, I guess. Belle was always my favorite anyway.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies

Tonight I made one of my favorite cookies. My family's Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies. There are recipes for this cookie everywhere online, but I used the recipe from our super secret family cookbook.

Well, an abridged version anyway.

My little sister made these for all us kids as a Christmas present a few years back.

Time to break out the Reese's.

The best part of the night was serving these cookies fresh out of the oven with a cold glass of milk to our guests.

I told them all that they had to pose so I could take pictures for my blog. It was the price for enjoying my delicious cookies. 

Jon panicked when I told him to pose. Guess he couldn't handle the pressure of being a cookie model.

Dan, on the other hand, took his cookie modeling job very seriously. 

Then there's my brother, Austin. You can totally tell that he is very used to me making him pose for pictures with my food.

I got a pretty good compliment on my cookies by Jon. He said, 

"On a scale from one to even, I just can't."